Researchtwo AIR pollutants to increased risk of heart birth defects

[Guest guest]

Public release date: 29-Dec-2001

Contact: Warren Robak warrenr 310-825-2585

University of California - Los Angeles

 

Urban air pollution linked to birth defects for first time; UCLA research

links two pollutants to increased risk of heart defects

 

Exposure to two common air pollutants may increase the chance that a

pregnant woman will give birth to a child with certain heart defects,

according to a UCLA study that provides the first compelling evidence that

air pollution may play a role in causing some birth defects.

 

Pregnant Los Angeles-area women living in regions with higher levels of

ozone and carbon monoxide pollution were as much as three times as likely

to give birth to children who suffered from serious heart defects,

according to a study published in the Jan. 1 edition of the American

Journal of Epidemiology.

 

Researchers from the UCLA School of Public Health and the California Birth

Defects Monitoring Program found the risk for the birth defects increased

among women exposed to elevated amounts of the pollutants in the second

month of their pregnancy, a period when the heart and other organs begin

developing.

 

" The greater a woman's exposure to one of these two pollutants in the

critical second month of pregnancy, the greater the chance that her child

would have one of these serious cardiac birth defects, " aid Beate Ritz, a

UCLA epidemiologist who headed the study. " More research needs to be done,

but these results present the first compelling evidence that air pollution

may play a role in causing some birth defects. "

 

Researchers conducted the study by matching extensive air pollution

monitoring information collected by regional air-quality officials with

information from the California Birth Defects Monitoring Program, a program

funded by the state Department of Health Services that collects

comprehensive information about structural birth defects in partnership

with the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation.

 

" The birth defects registry is an exquisite investigational tool. Because

of this resource we are able to intensify the search for causes of birth

defects, " said John A. Harris, chief of the California Birth Defects

Monitoring Program. " One in 33 babies in the United States is born with a

serious birth defect ==the leading cause of infant death. This kind of

research is not a luxury. Studies like this one on air pollution give us

critical leads to follow up with further research "

 

Ritz said she was surprised that the study found an effect at the pollution

levels researchers studied.

 

" These findings show that there are more health problems caused by air

pollution than solely asthma and other respiratory illnesses, " Ritz said.

" There seems to be something in the air that can harm developing fetuses. "

 

The study also suggests that despite a significant decrease in urban air

pollution nationally, there may be pollution problems that are not yet

understood.

 

" There has been a big reduction in the levels of criteria air pollutants

like ozone and carbon monoxide over the years, " Ritz said. " But there still

may be air toxics and fine particles or other secondary pollutants that

occur alongside carbon monoxide and ozone, but which we don't measure

routinely or know about, and those things may pose health risks we don't

yet understand. "

 

Researchers analyzed information collected by the California Birth Defects

Monitoring Program on more than 9,000 babies born from 1987 to 1993 in Los

Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Using measurements

made regularly at 30 locations by the South Coast Air Quality Management

District, which manages air quality in the four-county region, researchers

compared air quality near the homes of children born with birth defects to

air quality in the neighborhoods of children born healthy.

 

Pregnant women who were exposed to increased levels of ozone and carbon

monoxide faced an elevated risk of having a child with conotruncal heart

defects, pulmonary artery/valve defects and aortic artery/valve defects.

This group of heart defects occurs 1.76 times per 1,000 births, with about

935 cases in California each year. Many of these babies face open-heart

surgery before age one.

 

For women living in the areas with the highest levels of carbon monoxide

and ozone, the risk tripled when compared to women who lived in areas of

the air basin with the cleanest air. Among women who lived in areas with

moderately higher pollution levels, the risk of birth defects doubled.

" We're not sure carbon monoxide is the culprit because it could be just a

marker for something else in tailpipe exhaust, " said Gary Shaw of the

California Birth Defects Monitoring Program and a co-author of the study.

 

" The fact that certain heart defects are turning up in the second month of

pregnancy when hearts are being formed suggests something serious may be

happening. The dose-response aspect of this study certainly strengthens the

findings and underscores the need for additional research. Unlike other

health factors like diet or lifestyle, a pregnant woman has almost no

control over the quality of air she breathes. We need answers.

 

Researchers did not find a link between birth defects and exposure to

nitrogen dioxide and larger-sized particulate matter other air pollutants

that are commonly found in the South Coast Air Basin and other urban

regions. However, the monitoring network for particulate matter is less

extensive than for other pollutants and no monitoring is done for very

small particulates, which are often found alongside carbon monoxide. The

study also found no correlation between exposure to air pollution and other

common birth defects such as cleft palates.

 

While the study focused on the Los Angeles urban region, the findings have

implications for most urban areas in the nation, particularly ones where

vehicle traffic plays an important part in forming air pollution, Ritz

said. Carbon monoxide is primarily released in tailpipe emissions, while

ozone pollution is formed in the atmosphere from pollutants released by

both vehicles and industrial sources.

 

A number of recent studies conducted by Ritz and other researchers have

suggested that air pollution can have harmful effects on pregnancy,

including causing premature delivery and low birth-weight. But researchers

had not been able to examine whether there is a link between air pollution

and birth defects because they lacked the resources to do such a study.

 

" You cannot do this type of scientific research unless you have a

surveillance system that collects this type of high-quality information, "

Ritz said. " Unless we collect extensive air pollution monitoring

information and details about birth defects, we cannot learn about these

types of health effects. "

 

While the study is the first rigorous effort to demonstrate a link between

air pollution and birth defects, the findings do have limitations, Ritz said.

 

Researchers were only able to estimate mothers exposures to routinely

measured air pollutants. They relied on air pollution concentrations

collected at the air-quality monitoring station nearest a mother's home,

which could be as far as 10 miles away. Also, they were unable to evaluate

other potential risk factors for birth defects, including maternal smoking,

occupational exposures, vitamin supplement use, diet and obesity.

 

Future studies need to address these limitations, as well as examine

whether it is the routinely measured pollutants or other potentially

harmful substances in air pollution that are responsible for the birth

defects, Ritz said.

 

" There may be some other chemical culprit in tailpipe emissions, which we

can't identify at this time, that is causing the problem, " Ritz said.

" Since carbon monoxide is released in motor vehicle exhaust along with

these other pollutants that we don't measure, these other pollutants also

may be important. "

 

Researchers at the Southern California Particle Center are working to

identify the chemical components of the microscopic soot that is contained

in vehicle tailpipe emissions. The UCLA School of Public Health-based

center, one of four major particulate centers funded by federal officials,

has identified compounds that researchers suspect could affect human health.

 

###

Funding for the study was provided by the National Institute of

Environmental Health Sciences. Other authors include Fei Yu of the UCLA

School of Public Health and Scott Fruin of the UCLA School of Public Health

and the California Air Resources Board.

 

 

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[Guest guest]

>

> Urban air pollution linked to birth defects for first time; UCLA

research

> links two pollutants to increased risk of heart defects

 

 

Hmmm, sounds like super antioxidents may be needed here. Wonder if

anyone ever does double blind studies on natural substances?

 

francie